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The Trial of John Metcalf ThurstonThe trial of John M. Thurston caused quite a stir in the Village of Owego during the fall of 1851. From his temporary residence in Connecticut, James S. Griffing was able to follow the accounts of the trial from the Owego newspapers which were forwarded to him by his relatives. Several of James' acquaintances were involved in the trial proceedings as jurors or witnesses. James' cousin, Frederick Parmelee, a wheelwright who lived directly across the street from the defendant, was called as a character witness as were many others. Tioga Oyer
& Terminer – October, 1851 Present – Livenus Monson,
Justice October 13, 2 o’clock, P.M. At the opening of the Court the prisoner, John M. Thurston, was brought in by Dept. Sheriff Willard and seated along with his Counsel. He is exceedingly pale, wears a careworn expression, is genteelly dressed, and presents to spectators the appearance of a man of intelligence, and withal, a person whose breeding and advantages have been good. Nor would he be taken by the casual observer to be a man of that ungovernable and ferocious temper which are alledged to enter so conspicuously into his character; but rather as possessing mildness and gentleness in a rare degree. The calling of the Jury was about being proceeded with, when Mr. Dickinson raised an objection to the empanelling of the Jury. He said the statute authorized the Justices of the Supreme Court in capital cases to draw 24 jurors in addition to the ordinary panel. A certificate was made in this case and the drawing was ordered. In the drawing of these additional Jurors 24 were drawn, and Marshall Anderson who was drawn upon the regular panel was also drawn upon the extra panel, so that but 23 were given. The entire afternoon was consumed in getting the requisite number of Jurors – upward of forty being set aside. The following are the Jurors finally accepted and sworn: L__an Whittemore; John M. Van Kleeck; Pet__ Ross; Theodorus Herrick; John Ward; B. _. Green; Wm. Arnold; Holmes Barratt; John Whitaker; John C. Lincoln; Wm. B. Updegrove; Aaron C. Chapman. At 7 o’clock the Court adjourned till 8:15 tomorrow morning. Second Day Tuesday morning, 8 ˝ o’clock At the opening of the court Mr. Dickinson, on the part of the Defense said: We do not expect to be able to proceed till 3 o’clock on account of the absence of important witnesses. They are material witnesses and it is in the opinion of counsel, necessary that they should be here at the beginning of the trial to hear the testimony and all the attending circumstances of the alleged crime. The counsel regret being obliged to apply for the delay. We think it will not delay the trial much after all, but we feel constrained to ask the indulgence of the court until that time. We certainly would not make the application if we did not think it necessary, for we are very anxious to proceed. Further proceedings in the trial were accordingly postponed till 3 o’clock, P.M. Afternoon Session 2 ˝ o’clock, P.M. On the coming in of the
Court, Mr. Dickinson rose and said: -- We wish to make this suggestion in regard
to the indictment. It is a matter upon which the Court had not jurisdiction. The
indictment alleges the Court to have been held before Wm H. Shankland, Justice;
Charles P. Avery, The court overruled the exception. Mr. Dickinson. The court will have the kindness to note an exception to it. Opening for the People by Hon. Joshua A Spencer. The Hon. Joshua A. Spencer, for the People, addressed the Jury as follows, -- Gentlemen of the Jury – By the oath which you have taken, you are well informed of the name of the defendant, who is arraigned and is now at the bar of this Court to be tried for an offence of the highest grade known to our law. The responsibility which this trial devolves on you is one of greater weight than we, any of us, have language to describe. You have sworn to make true deliverance between the people of this State and the prisoner at the bar and to find a verdict according to the evidence which shall be adduced before you. I need not spend time, I hope, gentlemen, in invoking from you a patient, deliberate, intelligent, upright, and firm hearing in this case. It is one which must call into exercise every faculty of your minds, your ripest judgment, your best good sense, your sagacity in every respect fully to appreciate and understand the evidence as it shall be adduced before you. – If you have any prepossessions of any description whatever it behooves you carefully to examine yourselves and to faithfully dismiss them all. If in reading this account when it first appeared in the newspapers – and doubtless you are all reading men….. John Metcalf Thurston, the prisoner at the bar, stands indicted for the crime of MURDER. This is the expressive term known to our law, and it embraces in itself – that single word embraces every single element in its definition that constitutes the crime. A Grand Jury of this county, setting a former Court, after a careful hearing of the evidence only on the part of the prosecution – accused him of having fellonously taken the life of his fellow. The name of the deceased whom he is charged with having felloneously killed, is ANSON GARRISON. Only a short time ago, on the 7th of February last, Anson Garrison was a young man in full health and life, and had been many years before that a resident among you, and, it may be, known to you all. In the course of the events pertaining to human life, some seven or eight years since this Mr. Anson Garrison was married to the sister of the defendant in this trial. The precise time of the marriage may appear in evidence in the course of the trial. In the course of time Garrison and his wife had become the parents of a little child, as off-spring of that marriage, now five or six years old, and I believe the only child. They had lived together as husband and wife for a goodly number of years. Mr. Garrison himself was a prosperous man, an industrious mechanic, a frugal citizen, universally respected; and, yet, for some reason, which may not fully appear, nor is it necessary to be very particular about it – but, for some reason or other, they had not lived very happy in the married state, certainly not towards the close of his life. On the 6th day of February last, Mrs. Garrison left their house, caused by some difficulty which arose between herself and husband. She went from her own house and home, leaving her husband and child, as I am informed, to the house of her parents, who are now residents of the village and have long been. They are aged people, and are parents of a numerous family of children. From the house of the parents she repaired to the house of her brother John M. Thurston. Sometime in the course of the 7th day of February she went to her brother’s house. Her brother had previously, shortly before this time, entered into the married state, and but a brief period before this visit had become a house-keeper scarcely settled in life, and not married more than three months. She spent the d ay at her father’s and brothers. During the day the little child, the daughter of Mr. Garrison, was allowed to go to her mother and spend a considerable portion of the day with her. In the course of this day, the 7th of February – that fatal day – Mr. Thurston the prisoner, visited Mr. Garrison at his place of engagement as a mechanic. Garrison had been 12 or 14 years engaged in labor as a mechanic in the furnace or machine shop belonging to Mr. Camp of this village – perhaps a longer period than almost any man has been engaged as a journeyman, laboring man, or master mechanic, in the employment of the same person. While there engaged on the 7th of February, Thurston, the prisoner, visited him several times, and spent with him several hours in private conversation. What was the subject of that conversation we are not enabled to show, but they were in earnest private conversation in the apartment of the furnace where Garrison was at work. It is fair to presume that they were engaged in conversation more than any other topic, about the difficulty between the husband and wife; and also, in respect to another question, who was entitled to the custody of the child in the vent of a separation. I understand, also, that Mr. Thurston during the day took counsel from legal gentlemen in this village as to which, as a matter of right, in point of law, the custody of this child belonged; and was informed that as the wife had voluntarily left home and child, she had no right to the child, and it belonged to the father. It will appear farther from the evidence which will be laid before you, that there had been some arrangement made between the prisoner and Garrison, that the latter should come up to visit his wife and talk up the matter between them; and that the interview was to have a direct bearing on the question whether the daughter should remain with the mother or return with the father. -- Evening came, the sister of the prisoner, the wife of the deceased being at John M. Thurston’s. At about 7 o’clock, which at that season must have been after dark, Garrison came up after his daily labor, to keep his appointment, and as he approached the house of Thurston, near the gate, he met Thurston at the gate, which is some 10 or 12 feet from and in front of the door, and was accosted by him, saying, “I was just starting after you fearing you would not come.” Thurston invited him, with as much of pleasant expression in his voice as any one would, to walk in. Garrison first desired to see his wife, and to have her come to the door. But he was invited into the house instead. In obedience to this invitation to walk in, he went in. The door in front opened into an entry, and on the left the door opened into a parlor or front room of that building. Leading into the kitchen is a narrow passage. From that passage they stepped down one step into the room they occupied as a kitchen. In the warm season the kitchen might have been down in the temporary house, but in the winter season the room I speak of was regarded as the kitchen and will be spoken of as such by the witnesses. We shall have a diagram of the house and grounds to show you. It is a small room perhaps 12 by 14 or 15 feet. In this room was a cooking stove. At the time of their entering there were several females in the room. There was, for example, the mother of Thurston, the wife of Thurston, the married sister of Thurston, and, perhaps there may have been some other ladies. This little child was in the room as they entered. As soon as they entered the room, Thurston set a chair and invited Mr. Garrison to take a seat, or nearly so – the precise time cannot be made to appear from any quarter – but at some little – a very short time after. Mr. Thurston had set a chair, and Mr. Garrison had taken a seat he spoke to the little child, he may have spoken to her before he took a seat. He invited the child to him, and I believe changed his position a trifle, moving towards her; and the child, by invitation of the father, and, at the suggestion of the mother, went from the mother to the father, and was sitting on his lap. He was caressing the child, and the child was at the same time crying, though for what reason may not clearly appear. It was a young child, and for some cause was crying, & the father was endeavoring with kind words & with soft and gentle voice, to soothe her. All this however, occupied less time than I have taken in relating it to you. After Garrison had taken his seat, Thurston stepped out at the door. Garrison sat a short distance from the door with his back towards it. His chair must have been nearly as far back as would allow the door to swing round open behind it. That door opened into the temporary erection, kitchen, shed, or whatever you may be pleased to call it, two steps down from the room where the family were sitting around the stove. He went out of this door and immediately, or within a very short space of time, returned, but saying not a word. During his absence he had possessed himself of an axe. I don’t think any one of the persons who were in the room saw, with any considerable distinctness, whether Thurston was holding the axe or not. I have not been able to understand whether any one of them saw when he entered the room that he had an axe; but in a moment, almost instantly, not being over three or four feet from Garrison, he struck the bit of this axe, the whole length, into the head of Garrison, a little to the left of the centre of the head, burying the axe entirely up to the helve into the brain of Garrison. That blow instantly killed Garrison. Beyond all doubt his death was instantaneous. The blow was from behind and when this fatal blow was given he was not conscious of what had befallen him. This is the material and fatal blow; but, in an instant, as soon as a second blow could be given, he struck Garrison a second blow at the side of the head. His head had fallen only a little back on one side after the first blow, and was left sitting as he had done previously. Not a muscle had moved when the second blow was dealt. This blow was also struck from behind, severing the jaw bone, striking the teeth and making a very heavy gash. That blow could have inflicted no additional pain. It is a circumstance of no importance except that it shows the determination to destroy life, if the first blow had not been fatal, in the mind of him who dealt the first blow; but as you will understand much better than witnesses can describe or counsel portray, these blows followed each other almost instantaneously. – They were dealt and Garrison sat in his chair. At what time the child was taken from the lap of Mr. Garrison may not appear; but the child was separated from the father very soon after the father was separated from this world. It is not very material to give you much detail of what followed that period; but, at some time, as some of the witnesses will declare to you, Thurston, himself, had hold of the head of Garrison. He yet sat in the chair until a good many neighbors came in, and remained sitting until those whose painful office it was to fold him in his winding sheet, removed him to perform that last office. Several persons, directly after this, spoke with Thurston, and he spoke of having done the deed himself. He did not disguise it. He requested one or more of the witnesses to go for a physician; and another of the witnesses to call in a magistrate, or an officer; and I believe the physician and the officer were called. The officer came and Thurston submitted himself to arrest. [Will add more later as transcribed from record.]
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